Database

Fundamentals
Lecture 1
Dr. Mona Nashaat
Welcome to the course!
- Course Contents:
- Introduction to Database
- Entity Relation Diagram
- Mapping ERD to Tables
- Structured Query Language

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Databases are everywhere
- We deal with databases all the times in our lives.

E-commerce (e.g., Personal Email Social Media

Amazon, Jumia)

- Any online organization that sells on a platform, such as Amazon, has to

use a database to organize products, pricing, customer information,
and purchasing history.
- Social media companies track everything about you that they can. They
track your friends and your posts, but they also track your engagement
with the content displayed in your feed.

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Before Database Systems
- File-based systems: the systems that are used to organize and
maintain data files. These file systems are used to handle a single
or multiple files and are not very efficient.
- A file-based system helps in basic data management for any user.
- Let’s assume, we are in a company with two departments: HR
department and Financial Department.
- HR department uses word documents to store the data of all
employees.
- Financial department uses excel sheets to manage payroll

Financial Dept.

HR Dept.

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Advantages of file-based Systems
- The file Based system is not complicated and is simpler to use.
- This system is quite inexpensive.
- Because the file-based system is simple and cheap, it is normally
suitable for home users and owners of small businesses.
- Since the file-based system is used by smaller organizations or
individual users, it stores comparatively lesser amount of data.
Hence, the data can be accessed faster and more easily.

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Problems of file-based systems
- The File based system is limited to a smaller size and cannot
store large amounts of data.
- This system is relatively uncomplicated, but this means it cannot
support complicated queries, data recovery etc.
- There may be redundant data in the file-based system.
- The data is not very secure in a file-based system.
- The data files in the file-based system may be stored across
multiple locations. Consequently, it is difficult to share the data
easily with multiple users.
We need to update
our records too
Financial Dept.

We need to
increase salary for
employee how got HR Dept.
masters degree
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Then, comes the databases
- Database: a collection of related data.
- Database management system (DBMS): a software/package
used to facilitate the creation and maintenance of computerized
database.
- Database system = Database + DBMS

DBMS Databases

Database System

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Database system main components

Users

Application Programs

DBMS Software Software to process queries

Software to access stored data

Stored DB Definition (Metadata) Stored Database

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Database system main components
- Users: There are a number of users who can access or retrieve
the data on demand using the application and the interfaces
provided by the DBMS.
- Application Programs: User interface that allows the users to
input queries and update database without using the query
language itself.
- DBMS: Software between the physical database and the users of
the system. All the requests from the user for accessing the
database are handled by DBMS.
- Stored databases: is the actual computer system used for
keeping and accessing the database such as hard disks. 9
Database system main components
- Physical database consists of:

1. Stored DB definition (Metadata)

• Username
• Table Name
• Password
• Column Name
• User’s Privileges
• Column data types
• DB Objects
• Constraints
structure
• Access Privileges
Stored DB Definition (Metadata) • Log files

2. Stored DB

• Ahmed
• 12-1-2001
• 1000
Stored DB

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Advantages of DBMS
- Controlling redundancy

Update Update
Financial Dept. HR Dept.

Database

- Restricting unauthorized access

- Enforcing integrity constraints
- Inconsistency can be avoided

Financial Dept. HR Dept.

Backup
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Disadvantages of DBMS
- Needs expertise to use
- DBMS is expensive: needs network infrastructures, servers, and
storage
- May be incompatible with any other available DBMS

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